Are You Like Chickens?

Working from home is great.

Until you want to get any work done. Then it’s the worst.

My almost-three-year-old daughter has taken on the role of my annoying interrupting coworker — so much so that we had to put a kiddie rail at the bottom of the stairs to stop her coming up to my office.

But that just made it more fun.

This morning she MacGyver’d over the rail, raced up the stairs, burst through the door, and — now completely out of puff — blurted out: “Are you like chickens?”

Huh? As in for dinner tonight? Or in general? Or wait … are you trying to psyche me out?

She didn’t say, and began rolling around on the floor, staring up at the ceiling.

Good chat.

This, however, was far from the only nonsensical thing that happened this week … let me tell you about a few.

Let’s start off with my Barefoot inbox. Questions flood in from people all over the country, giving me a good insight into what the man on the street in a mask is thinking. 

You’d think that people would be asking about COVID, JobKeeper or JobSeeker. 

You’d be wrong. For the past few months the questions have been dominated by how to buy and trade stocks. And, with gold hitting fresh highs, people are now asking me about how to buy that too.

Next, there’s my day job. As a volunteer financial counsellor, you’d think I’d be run off my feet, with so many people out of work.

You’d be wrong. Last year our agency would get a dozen calls a day from people in financial crisis … yet at the moment the phone barely rings. There’s a certain financial pain-point people need to get to to seek out our services. The government stimulus has largely — though temporarily — taken that away.

The final nonsensical thing I came across this week was when I went to pick up some photos of Mini-MacGyver from the local camera shop.

The owner confessed that last year he’d been thinking about shutting up shop. Things were that tough. And then came the lockdown. You’d think he’d be struggling to stay afloat.

And again … you’d be wrong. Instead, something weird happened. “I’ll be blowed”, said the owner, “but since we came out of the first lockdown the shop has been going absolutely mental … our sales are through the roof! In fact, I don’t think we’ll qualify for JobKeeper this time around because our figures are too good.”

“People are buying cameras in Sicktoria?” I enquired. “To shoot what? The inside of their homes?”

He shrugged his shoulders.

“So I’m thinking I’ll spend a bit on doing the shop up ... I reckon things have turned the corner”, he said, smiling.

Maybe … or perhaps the $42 billion raid on super, combined with the government stimulus, has served as a short-term sugar hit. We may not have found a vaccine, but plenty right now are double-dosing on retail therapy.

Tread Your Own Path!